#3
After failing to take Mariupol's steel works plant
Apparently, in addition to being a big-ass steel plant, Asovstal Steel & Iron Works is also a Soviet-era underground city six levels deep with 3 meters of concrete between levels that was designed to survive nuke war. (Shades of the mine-shaft gap!). Cleaning this out would be a high-casualty nightmare. Siege is a better option if you have the time. It's not like the defenders are going anywhere.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] 1. Mariupol.
The active cleansing of Azovstal continues, the active work of artillery and aviation helps the assault groups to advance in industrial buildings. Along the way, civilians are taken out of the territory of Azovstal, who manage to escape from there.
2. Zaporozhye.
Active fighting east of Gulyaipol, troops are advancing west of Velikaya Novoselka, occupying several villages. On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole without changes.
3. Ugledar.
Intensive fighting in the region of Novomikhailovka-Ugledar and Velikaya Novoselka. Two settlements were taken south of Velikaya Novoselka.
4.Marinka.
No major changes. The enemy firmly holds positions in the waste heap area. Without the capture of Novomikhailovka or control of the Maryinka-Kurakhovo highway, it will be difficult to push him out.
5. Avdievka.
No significant changes. Fighting continues in the area of Novobakhmutovka and Troitsky. There is no active traffic to New York yet.
6. LPR.
Today the enemy withdrew from Rubizhne and Kremennaya. According to unconfirmed information, the enemy is preparing a retreat from Severodonetsk. In Popasna, heavy street fighting. The pace of progress in the city is low.
7. Izyum.
Heavy fighting in the direction of Barvenkovo and Slavyansk. The enemy has thrown his main reserves here, which leads to very intense battles, which should hinder the pace of the advance of the Russian troops. The enemy is also strengthening the defenses of Seversk, Yampol and Krasny Liman, which will soon be on the agenda.
8. Kharkov.
Fighting north of the city and east of Chuguev. Both sides are actively using MLRS and cannon artillery, but so far the tendencies towards positionalism are dominating here.
9. Nikolaev.
The parties do not carry out active offensive actions. The RF Armed Forces strike at targets in Nikolaev and south of Nikopol. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to answer in the direction of Kherson. Clashes are going on in the villages between Kherson and Nikolaev.
10. Odessa.
No significant changes. The transfer of additional troops from western Ukraine to the city is noted. They also report the transfer of NATO cargo. Delivery of anti-ship missiles is expected, which will complicate the operations of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the western part of the Black Sea.
#1
Time is on Putin's side. Control the air and pound. Use of solders only after softening up. Biden and EU quite ineffective. This will signal pause for Finland and Sweden.
[RealClearDefense via Bongino] Without better preparation for war against a threatened Chinese invasion, Taiwan will suffer far worse consequences than Ukraine because of the constraining effects of its island geography. There are five immediate lessons from the first month of the Russian-Ukraine conflict that war planners in Taipei and Washington need to address. Forgot #6 - Jo-jo the (under)performing monkey
#1
We have no business "helping" Ukraine at all. The most we could do for Taiwan was help them get armed, share intelligence and make sure we were not caught short here if they are taken by China.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/21/2022 12:15 Comments ||
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#2
I believe Taiwan has taken the threat of invasion seriously for decades. They should be far more prepared than Ukraine.
Hopefully China will collapse and abused mobs will beg Taiwan to take over.
BLUF:
[American Thinker] Joe Biden's policy reversals are detrimental to the strategic interests of the US. Why? There are reasons to suspect Biden is co-opted and or blackmailed by foreign and domestic enemies. These enemies are the Marxists, Globalists, the Communist Party of China (CCP), the Russian and Ukrainian Oligarchs, and the Iranians. Biden’s policy failures, the outright violations of the Constitution and federal laws, can't just be attributed to the utter stupidity of Biden and his administration but are intentional.
Biden failed to defend the US Southern Border and engaged with Iranian Mullahs to the detriment of our strategic interests and allies in the Middle East. He covered for China as the likely source of the Covid-19 virus. He disbanded the DOJ/FBI unit that roots out CCP espionage agents in academia. Finally, Biden went soft on Russia. He shut down our domestic oil and gas production, killed the Keystone pipeline, greenlighted Russia’s Nord Stream II pipeline, put the skids on Israel’s EastMed gas pipeline, and delayed Russian sanctions and arming Ukraine before the Russian invasion.
America had grown weary of the war in Afghanistan with its mission creep. It was time to leave. Biden and his administration did leave — an example of how not to do it. The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, abandoning Bagram AFB and leaving it for the Chinese. All the while, Hunter Biden was raking in millions from the Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian oligarchs for no credible purpose other than gaining access to Joe Biden.
The Biden Administration’s policy reversals backed the US into a shooting war between the Russians and Ukrainians, likely to escalate. So is Joe Biden now toast to "those that foisted him on us"?
Were these policy reversals the result of undue influence on Joe Biden by enemies of the US, both foreign and domestic?
We are at a tipping point with the coming midterms. The lies of the elite et al. are catching up with the common sense of the American people.
#1
All the while, Hunter Biden was raking in millions from the Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian oligarchs for no credible purpose other than gaining access to Joe Biden.
"Access to Joe Biden" is simply an intermediate goal. Globalization of our Republic remains the desired outcome.
Our tragic exit from Afghanistan was likely a foreign time-lined action. Notice how rapidly the event along with any follow-up investigation found it's was to the memory hole ?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/21/2022 9:05 Comments ||
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#5
Truth is, I don't see it happening. 200+ years ago the Boston Massacre sparked a revolution. These days Ashli Babbit gets..... nada. The national will just isn't there.
#6
I fear you're right Mercutio. However a true crisis...say starvation , has a way of strengthening the spirit. Americans have never faced a true starvation situation en masse even during the Great Depression. It's going to be an interesting summer...
#7
I've got to agree with the outline above for the need and justification for a reset. Currently, we have criminals in D.C. at the helm. Whether or not the reset will happen I don't know.
#5 Mercutio. Many were not on board for a revolution 200+ years ago. Many sided with the British. And yet, the American Revolution went forward.
#9
I think the Afghanistan debacle leaving a bad taste in the average American's mouth is a good thing.
If you liked Afghanistan you'll love Ukraine. Endless opportunities for embezzlement by Hunter, his dad and his uncle. Plus, they get to trash the US economy and make Americans even more dependent on Washington
#10
Texas Bank Robbers' Credo: "Plan's just a list of things ain't gonna happen..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/21/2022 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
Bill Clinton and Bath House couldn't "ruin America." Pardon me if I doubt Joe Bidet can either.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/21/2022 12:21 Comments ||
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#12
I have a friend who follows foreign policy issues closely and he partially blames Trump for the Afghanistan fiasco as he set the timeline in his deals with Afghanistan.
Well if he did I doubt he told them to evacuate important bases before the evacuation was complete. Nobody has been put on trial for incompetency, so Biden owns the fiasco.
#13
ruprecht, I seem to recall that President Trump couched the timing as dependent on the Afghan government and the Taliban meeting certain targets at each stage, otherwise it was off.
But also that the Pentagon was dragging its feet — and crowing about fooling him to their friends in the news media — so he eventually put his foot down.
#14
That is how I understood it. And Biden said we are leaving and they continued to drag their feet until it was too late and he hadn't changed his mind.
[IsraelTimes] Expert says 50-year-old Soviet Strela-2 shoulder-fired system, hyped by Hamas, is easily countered and has limited functionality, with aging missiles and makeshift power solutions.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, terror group launched several anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets conducting Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the Gazoo
Continued on Page 49
Blustering in Egypt as changing reality becomes too much to ignore.
[AlAhram] The stark difference between US and Israeli plans for a New Middle East and the unchanging reality of Israel as an occupying power remains, as two recent pictures from the Middle East reveal.
Two vivid pictures, taken in less than a month, speak volumes about the serious challenges facing those powers, countries, and governing classes backed by their enablers in the media and some Arab think tanks that champion an elusive Middle East decoupled in their imagination and various scenarios from the past.
The first picture was taken last month and was of the participants at what has been falsely dubbed the "Negev Summit" where the foreign ministers of some Arab countries were pictured side by side with their Israeli and US counterparts. The Israelis, who spoke of a "historic" event, were the hosts.
Continued on Page 49
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[RealClearDefense via Bongino] Without better preparation for war against a threatened Chinese invasion, Taiwan will suffer far worse consequences than Ukraine because of the constraining effects of its island geography. There are five immediate lessons from the first month of the Russian-Ukraine conflict that war planners in Taipei and Washington need to address.
...
